Sally Holmes was never patented. It was hybridized by an amateur. Her popularity is probably affected by her size and modest rebloom for something that's larger than a Volkswagen. Deadheading is a three day job. I estimate over 1000 blooms on a single plant, and I have....four. The deadheading just never really happens here. My plants rebloomed better as younger plants, indicating that in my climate I need to prune a little more selectively to keep the wood young. Maybe next year... Here is a link that might be useful:

"Most vines are invasive..." That is just scaremongering and has to be challenged. If a vine is native, however vigorous it is, it cannot be definition be invasive. Furthermore, if you garden somewhere with tiny plots, like I do, vines (we call them creepers) are vital to enable us to garden every inch of our space including the vertical areas. All it needs is some knowledge in the choice plants and sensible maintenance regarding pruning and training to have living walls around your garden. Solanum crispum 'Glasnevin'. The back of my house with Parthenocissus henryana, a relation of VC, before a recent haircut:

This is a good thread. I also really like Ps.men. 'Pine Grove Gold.' Do any of you have an idea of what it's 10-year dimensions are going to be? It would be really cool if some scionwood were to find its way to me sometime this winter . . . @Mike, your Ch.law 'Filip's Golden Tears' -- is it grafted onto DR understock or is it a rooted cutting? I like this tree a lot but wouldn't think of sacrificing it to the land of Phytophthera. I almost got a nice disease-resistant specimen last winter, but the grower was more interested in expanding his numbers of stock plants. I will try again this fall. ~Dave

I was typing up my response above when montana and sue responded, sorry! I do like the wood hoods but I do also like the stainless hoods. I also really like the mantle hoods. I have the same problem with granite ... I like almost every one I see. Too bad I'm not building several houses, haha ! The website for kitchensource is great. There are so many different style hoods to look at there. Thanks ! If I went with the Omega National hood (which looks just like the one that was option 3 above from the KD), what would you suggest for the looks of a custom topper ? I have played around with different ideas for that hood but have not come up with a very good one yet. According to the KD, that one has to attach to cabinets to the left and right, correct ? (we are using cherry) Got a phone call back from KD. We will save $800 by not having them provide any kind of hood, so that's money we can put towards other options if we do stainless or a different wood hood. He had an idea for the stainless hood and the problem with the duct from the ceiling not lining up with the hood's flue. His idea was to have a metal worker "box out" the top of the stainless hood to hide the pipe. I mocked it up in my 3D program and also the custom hood pictured in the original post (the hoods below may not be exactly to scale but this gives a good idea of it, and of course the wood hood would match the cabinets). (click on picture for enlarged view) Florantha, yes I posted my plans last year (link to the old thread at the top of this thread in the first post). Kudos to you for recognizing it!! I thought this day would never come when we would be almost finished building !! Interesting point about downplaying the hood. Which option do you favor or do you have another idea for venting ?